Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 237: Choosing a Concubine is Not Easy (Part 2)
March 12, 1614, Wangji Soup Dumpling Shop at Tongji Gate in Nanjing City.
"Newspaper seller, newspaper seller. Six days ago, the Emperor issued an order to select a concubine for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! Newspaper seller~~"
"Young man, please bring me a copy of the Jinling Daily."
"Okay! I'll give you one copper coin. Thank you, Mr. Liu. Please keep the newspaper."
"Huh? Lao Liu, you've started using copper coins?"
"Haha, it's more than just copper coins." Boss Liu took out a handful of coins from his pocket: "Silver dollars and silver dimes. Since the day the Nanjing branch of the Ming Royal Bank opened, I have exchanged some of them."
"That's right, Boss Liu. You were the first to support Taisun's new currency policy."
"That's right!" Old Liu turned to the north, then clasped his hands and bowed: "If it weren't for the re-inspection and registration of the household registration by the Crown Prince, my whole family would be unregistered. My eldest son is such a good student, but he can't take the imperial examination... I, Old Liu, firmly support all the instructions of the Crown Prince!"
"Okay! Boss Liu is right. The crown prince came from Nanjing. If we don't support him, wouldn't that make people from other provincial governments all over the country laugh at us? By the way, Boss Wang, have you repriced your soup dumplings according to the new currency?"
"It's settled. My kid wrote the exchange rate on the sign the day before yesterday. Look, everyone, one Wanli copper coin is worth one Yongle Tongbao coin..."
"Okay, okay, why are you talking about something wrong again? Didn't the newspaper say that the Crown Prince was going to choose a concubine?"
"Yes, yes. Your Highness is from Nanjing, so he will definitely choose a woman from Nanjing."
"Hahaha, that's right, the girls in Jiangnan are so pretty! They are beautiful and well-educated. If they had bound their feet early, their three-inch golden lotus feet would sway in the wind when they walked, wow... eh!"
"What's wrong?"
"Old Ma, I just started learning to read last year, so I'm not very familiar with it yet. Come and see if I read it wrong. How could His Highness only choose natural feet when choosing a concubine?!"
Due to the limited information transmission level of that era, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is somewhat well-known throughout the country, but most of the people in the Ming Dynasty do not know what kind of person His Royal Highness is. Relatively speaking, the people of Nanjing City know the Crown Prince best, and they also know that the Crown Prince has always been a maverick. But even so, the rules for the Crown Prince's selection of concubines, in addition to the conventional family background and not being from an official family, also clearly stipulate that only girls with natural feet can participate in the selection. This is something that even the Nanjing citizens who support the Crown Prince the most cannot understand.
You have to know that in this era, only girls from wealthy families were eligible to have their feet bound. Girls had to work in the fields at an early age, and if their feet were bound, wouldn't that waste their labor? So once the crown prince put forward this condition, it almost determined the origin of the crown prince's wife: either poor or humble...
"Hmm~ Boss Liu, you read it right, this is what the newspaper said, the candidate for the Crown Prince's Consort must have natural feet. Hiss~~ What's wrong with your Highness..."
"Quick, quick, quick, flip through the pages. Based on my experience, if the Crown Prince does something big, the entire Jinling Daily will definitely have a lot of space to explain it."
"Boss Liu is right. Whether it was the household registration check or the murder of the crown prince by the traitors Zhao and Zu, the entire Jinling Daily has explained the whole story clearly. The crown prince's selection of a concubine is also a major event concerning the foundation of the country. Why must he choose a girl with natural feet? Your Highness must have something to say about this."
Zhu Youdong has always believed in one thing: there is nothing that cannot be said to others. The only thing to be careful about is how to say it.
In handling the Gelsemium case, Zhu Youdong knew very well that if he didn't speak everything openly, not only would all kinds of rumors spread, but they would also seriously deviate from the truth.
Therefore, starting from late January, when the whole case became clear, the six major daily newspapers began to report on the Gelsemium case in a continuous stream: from the entire process of the case, the root causes behind the case, and the involvement of foreign forces, all were reported in detail.
As a result, the Donglin Party, which had been hit hard in the past few years for "misleading civilian candidates about the writing style" and "disloyalty of the royal family", became completely infamous. Especially this time, the royal family also got real evidence to prove that the Donglin Party colluded with the Japanese, which further ignited the public's emotions. It was precisely because they became the rats that everyone wanted to beat that the local head of the village took the initiative to lead the villagers to surround Zhao Nanxing's family.
In addition to using newspapers to hunt down the Donglin Party again, Zhu Youdong also took advantage of the fact that an eunuch was caught in the act of murdering the royal family to begin a rectification of the eunuchs in the palace - Wei Zhongxian was sent to the position of eunuch in the Internal Affairs Bureau early on, just waiting for the right opportunity.
Speaking of the Neiguanjian, it is a big deal: in terms of job division, the Neiguanjian is a special agency for managing eunuchs. During the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He was a eunuch of the Neiguanjian. However, with the rise of the Silijian, the Neiguanjian gradually degenerated into the "Ministry of Works" of the inner court.
Now, taking advantage of this case of hook kissing, Zhu Youdong gave the power of prosecution (not supervision) to the Internal Affairs Bureau, and equipped it with the knife of Old Wei. His rectification of the inner court is actually also in progress.
In short, relying on the six major daily newspapers, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's control over the citizens is far better than that of any emperor before the Ming Dynasty.
After getting the hint, everyone quickly turned the pages and, sure enough, in the third edition of the special edition on Chinese history, there was an article signed by Zhu Youdong: "The Weaker the Man, the More He Likes Foot Binding."
This article first uses a lot of research to prove that there was no large-scale foot binding in China before the Northern Song Dynasty. Foot binding became a fashion in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and then the Zhao family of the late Northern Song Dynasty began to bind the feet of royal daughters. Once this trend started, the trend of foot binding became more and more serious in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty.
Next, Zhu Youdong analyzed why this trend is becoming stronger and stronger: in short, it is to satisfy men’s morbid psychological and physiological needs.
Then, from a medical perspective, the harm of foot binding to women's spirit, especially to their bodies, was explained. Finally, the conclusion was drawn: the mother's body was destroyed, and she was doomed to not give birth to a strong and healthy next generation. In the long run, the descendants of the people who bound their feet would become weaker and weaker. When facing foreign enemies, they would be humiliated and seek peace like the Song Dynasty. Then, they would use more perverted methods to torture the women of their own tribe in order to seek psychological comfort. After that, they would fall into a vicious cycle that they could not extricate themselves from.
Finally, Zhu Youdong wrote: "When Emperor Taizu founded the Ming Dynasty, did Empress Xiaoci Gao (Empress Ma) ever bind her feet? There is no need to talk about Emperor Chengzu's achievements, but did Emperor Chengzu ever like to bind his feet? When Emperor Taizu founded the Ming Dynasty, he granted the right of scholars to wear swords, but in today's Ming Dynasty, there is not one scholar who is proud to wear a sword when walking outside. Instead, everyone is proud to wave a folding fan, apply perfume powder on their bodies, and walk gracefully... How can such a person be called a man of integrity?
If every man in the Ming Dynasty was like Zhang Qian in the Han Dynasty and Li Jing in the Tang Dynasty, and pursued achievements in life, why would they care whether a woman had bound feet?
Therefore, I have made up my mind. Today, when selecting concubines, I will only select natural feet! I am also here to advise the people of our Ming Dynasty: foot binding harms women and weakens future generations. The harm is extremely serious! I hereby advocate that women should not bind their feet, and men should regard women's natural feet as beautiful! "
